NEXT OCA MEETING
(FREE and open to the public)Friday February 10th, 2006, 7:30pmat Chapman University Directions.

Featured Speaker

Larry Adkins

Temple of the Fox – an Ancient Peruvian Temple Aligned with the Stars

Larry will present a brief overview of archaeoastronomy, a discipline that includes the study of ancient structures which align in someway with astronomical phenomena. After providing some basic background and describing a few archaeological sites from around the world as examples, the presentation will concentrate on a recently discovered Peruvian temple complex, dating back to 2200 BC, that appears to have been aligned with the December solstice (summer for Peru) sunrise. The alignment was discovered serendipitously and if confirmed it would be the oldest calendric temple in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the oldest anywhere.

Larry Adkins has a PhD in physics and worked in electronics research at Rockwell International for 30 years while teaching astronomy part time at Santiago Canyon College and Cerritos College. He has been a member of the OCA for many years and numerous astronomical interests including photography, spectroscopy, and astronomical history. He has recently published photographs in Sky and Telescope and an article in the Journal of the Antique Telescope Society on the history of Santa Ana College's Bishop Observatory and its historic 8" Clark refractor.